


morning glories

by kiitemiru



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: :), Blushing, Fluff, How do you tag???, Live Music Bars, M/M, Music, Mutual Pining, Pining, Singer Yuuri, Singing, Waiter Viktor, a whole lot of blushing, what are words even tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 19:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11607624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiitemiru/pseuds/kiitemiru
Summary: “Good evening everyone,” Yuuri says with a shy little wave, and Viktor nearly melts on the spot. “Tonight I’ll be singing something a little different... I hope you enjoy.”He looks up, right in Viktor's direction, and sings the first word. This exact point in time is the moment that Viktor falls in love with Yuuri Katsuki and his beautiful voice.





	morning glories

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by faerie--kei's lovely [art](https://faerie--kei.tumblr.com/post/162968724358/au-where-yuuri-is-a-regular-performer-at-a-live).

 

Evenings at Aria are always busy, especially on the weekends and Saturdays in particular, but the live music bar seems even more packed than usual tonight. Viktor weaves his way through a maze of crowded tables and delivers a tray full of drinks to table 15 with a smile. The band playing right now is pretty good, a group of college students with a rather… interesting name that he can’t remember at the moment. It’s open night, so anyone can go up and perform if they feel like it.

Viktor bustles about, collecting empty dishes and giving patrons his best waiter smile, hoping that they’ll leave good tips. He brings table 22 their food, taking the opportunity to do a bit of people watching while he’s there. There’s a young man with slightly messy black hair and glasses who looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here. A friend of his, Viktor is assuming, has his arm slung over the young man’s shoulders, trying to get him to lighten up.

He sets their dishes down on the table and is slightly startled when the young man looks up and does a double take when his gaze sweeps over Viktor. He stares at him for a couple of seconds with wide eyes behind his glasses, lips parting slightly before looking down again, the tips of his ears red. Viktor wonders if he’s ever met the young man before as he walks off to bring more water to table 25.

All of the seats at the bar are occupied when he walks past. He shoots a grin at Chris, who’s got his hands full mixing drink after drink. Viktor makes a mildly sarcastic remark about it being a busy night and Chris rolls his eyes at him. He drops off an armful of dirty dishes and notes that the young man from table 22 and his friend are now sitting at the bar.

The college band finishes their song and a small group of three replaces them on the stage. The night continues on like that without much more event as Viktor serves food and drinks and receives decent-ish tips. Sure, they could be better, but he doesn’t complain about it. The young man and his friend become increasingly intoxicated every time Viktor walks past the bar. The alcohol certainly seems to have loosened him up, he notes amusedly. The next time he exits the kitchen, the young man has his tie around his head and is laughing as he swipes his friend’s shot. Viktor wonders what made him so downcast earlier.

Open night is doing well, as usual. He has to stop and applaud when someone performs the best drum solo he’s heard in all his time working at the bar. A beatboxer with a loop pedal and his partner do a cover of a popular Korean song. A college student plays acoustic guitar and sings Ed Sheeran for ten minutes because the audience keeps asking him for encores. No one’s complaining because he’s actually really good.

All of a sudden, Aria erupts into clapping and whistling and Viktor has to look at what’s got everyone so excited. He stops on his way to the kitchen and glances up at the stage, doing a double take. His jaw drops and he stares, empty tray nearly slipping out of his now limp arms.

The young man from table 22 is up on stage, and he’s only barely dressed. His glasses are askew and his tie is still around his head. His shirt is halfway unbuttoned and his pants are completely missing. Viktor’s throat is suddenly really dry. He makes his way over to the bar and asks Chris to get him a glass of water.

“Thirsty?” his friend smirks, sliding the glass down the bar. Viktor gives him a half-hearted glare and downs the glass before turning his attention back to the stage.

“Ahh… jus’ so you guys know… I’m drunk,” the young man begins extremely eloquently and laughter rings out in the space. “My friend is forcing me to sing – that’s right, I’m looking at _you_ , Phichit-”

He points accusingly in the general direction of the bar and his friend waves back at him cheerfully. Viktor looks at Chris, who shrugs. He supposes that if the young man gets too rowdy, security will escort him out.

“… So, uh… here goes nothin’, I guess…”

One belted out rendition of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ later, Viktor is absolutely stunned speechless. At one point, the young man had winked right at him just as his shirt slid off his shoulder and Viktor nearly tripped and dropped a tray full of drinks. He had to go ask Chris for more water and tried to ignore the way his face was rapidly heating up.

Oh, his _voice_. Viktor had felt like he was going to swoon right into a dead faint after five seconds. It’s such a nice voice, smooth and rich, and he seems to have a ridiculous range as well. Some kind of faint accent had curled endearingly around his words along with the slur of alcohol. Viktor desperately wants to hear him sing again.

“Viktooooor~!”

He turns around just in time to catch an armful of drunk young man. He tries not to think about the way his voice had lifted up in a slight lilt at the end so it sounded more like ‘Viktoru’. No one’s ever said his name like that before. He wraps his arms around the young man in an attempt to keep him upright.

Chris tilts his head at him, a silent question if he needs help. After a brief moment of consideration, he shakes his head.

“Viktor, what’re you doin’ here?” the young man asks, alcohol making his words blend into each other at the ends.

“I work here,” Viktor replies, smiling slightly. He gets a quiet ‘oh’ in response. The young man starts rolling his hips against Viktor’s leg. His throat goes dry again and he chokes on air, eyes widening. He definitely needs more water.

“Y’know, my family runs an onsen – wait, no, a… what’s the English word…? Ah, hot spring! That’s it, a hot spring resort… in Japan… you should come visit sometime…”

Viktor isn’t really sure how to reply, so he settles for chuckling a little. The young man looks up at him and beams widely. His cheeks are flushed a pretty red and his eyes are wide and shiny. Viktor swears that his heart skips a beat in his chest. Suddenly, the young man’s bright expression fades slightly and takes on a more serious look.

“There’s even a rink close by. Ne, Viktor… you’ll skate again someday, won’t you?”

For the second time tonight, he’s stunned into silence. His knee gives a little twinge, as if to prove a point. Viktor opens his mouth to ask for his name, but all of his words die in his throat. The young man promptly passes out in his arms. His friend rushes to his side to take his weight off of Viktor, thankfully.

“Ah, I’m sorry! He’s normally super shy but, boy, does he get _wild_ when he drinks, haha!” the other man says cheerfully, holding up the young man like he weighs nothing.

“Do you… need any help?” Viktor asks tentatively.

“Nah, I’ll be fine. I’ve bench pressed _way_ heavier. Thanks anyway!”

In one swift movement, the young man’s friend picks his unconscious form up, bridal-style, and walks out of Aria’s doors like this is a normal occurrence that happens every other day or so. Viktor and Chris gape after him.

“Wow,” Chris breathes.

“Wow indeed.” Viktor agrees, but he’s not sure if they’re talking about the same thing.

“Those are some impressive arms. _Damn._ ”

He gives Chris an exasperated chuckle and goes to get more water. His head in swimming in questions that he never got to ask. Clearly, the young man knows who he is, knows that he used to skate… but who is he?

Viktor goes around for the rest of the night in a daze, his mind completely occupied by the gorgeous boy with the most beautiful voice who knows him somehow. It occurs to him as they’re cleaning up after closing that it’s highly likely that he’ll never see him again. The thought makes his chest hurt, so he tries to put it out of him mind, ‘tries’ being the key word.

Viktor slumps down onto a stool and sighs deeply, putting his head on the bar top. He can’t stop thinking about him. Chris thwacks the back of his head lightly. Mila swings by and leans on the bar casually, having finished wiping down all the tables. It was technically Viktor’s turn to do that tonight, but he was too busy wallowing in his own self-pity.

“Did you guys see that cutie who sang Toxic?” Mila says, blue eyes sparkling with mischief. Viktor groans to himself. _Why, why, why?_

“Viktor is infatuated with him,” Chris replies in a stage-whisper. She giggles lightly and whispers back, “He is _so_ in love.”

“I’m not!” Viktor exclaims exasperatedly. He rests his head on his forearms and hides his face in slight irritation. “I am _not_ in love.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Viktor!” Mila trills in a sing-song voice, skipping off with her phone already in her hand. He sighs for the nth time tonight, wondering what he could have possibly done to deserve all of this.

“Move your big forehead, I need to clean,” Chris chides, poking the side of Viktor’s neck to make him sit up so that he can polish the wood.

“It’s not _that_ big!” Viktor whines, deeply hurt. He can’t believe that Chris would wound him so badly like this.

He puts one arm on his lap and props his elbow up on it, pouting as he rests his cheek against his hand. “I can’t believe I didn’t even get his name…” he laments, watching Chris wipe the bar. 

Viktor voices his woes to Chris mournfully, looking pitifully disappointed the whole time. His friend wipes glasses with a sympathetic expression on his face.

“…He was so _wonderful_ , Chris! And now he’s gone and I’ll probably never see him again.” Viktor groans, throwing his hands up and collapsing forwards onto the bar again dramatically.

“Viktor, I just cleaned that! Are you _serious_?”

In revenge, Chris grabs a couple of ice cubes and shoves them under Viktor’s collar, down the back of his shirt. The resulting yelp as he sits bolt upright and nearly falls off the stool is priceless. His face twists into the most uncomfortable grimace as the ice cubes slide down his spine. Chris merely cackles at him in delight and Mila laughs at him from across the room, undoubtedly taking pictures and sending them to Yuri. He’s beginning to question why he’s friends with these people.

That night, Viktor dreams of a smooth voice, a half unbuttoned shirt and really, _really_ nice legs. He wakes up the next morning and has to hug Makkachin for comfort. He’s acting more like a kicked puppy than his own dog.

He’s just convinced himself to stop moping and pining when the young man shows up on the stage the next Saturday night at 8:27, blushing madly and dressed more appropriately this time. He opens his mouth to sing and _god_ , if he was great at singing while drunk, he’s got a voice sent from the heavens when sober. Viktor’s ears have never felt more blessed. He almost bursts into tears as he pours more water for table 4.

The young man performs again the next Saturday, and the Saturday after, and all the Saturdays after that. For a moment, Viktor feels like the luckiest person on the planet.

~

He always comes to Aria every Saturday night at the 8:27 slot, sings a single song and then disappears straight afterwards. He’s been coming every week without fail for the past four months and the 8:27 slot pretty much belongs to him at this point. Most of the time, he’s alone up on the stage, but sometimes he’s with Phichit, a friend of his that plays guitar. Either way, Viktor is never able to take his eyes off him, even for one moment.

His name is Yuuri Katsuki and every Saturday night, the sound of his voice steals Viktor’s breath from his lungs.

He’s been reprimanded by his boss more than times than he’d like to admit for slacking off when Yuuri is singing, but really, he just can’t help it. Okay, his fashion sense might need some work (one night, he was wearing that absolutely hideous blue tie of his that was almost enough to make Viktor actually start crying on the spot), but Yuuri is just too gorgeous.

He makes something in Viktor’s heart stir, something he hasn’t felt in a long time. It’s in the way that Yuuri smiles shyly before he starts singing, the way he sways a little on the spot when he really gets into a song, the way he closes his eyes during the softest parts. For five minutes or so every Saturday night, Viktor lets himself get lost in Yuuri’s voice.

Viktor’s been working at Aria for about a year now, but no one else’s music has ever enchanted him as much as Yuuri’s. There’s something so genuine about his singing that makes his heart feel warm. A lot of people perform at Aria because it’s a good way to earn easy money, but it feels like Yuuri is there solely because he wants to perform.

It’s Saturday night and Viktor is getting dressed for work. He hums to himself as he slides on his light grey vest over the black button-up and fixes up his hair. It’s the song that Yuuri sang last week and it’s been stuck in his head all week. He’d bought it as soon as he got home that night, but he had to admit that Yuuri sang it better. To be honest though, he’s pretty biased because he thinks that everything Yuuri sings is simply amazing. He could probably sing the alphabet and Viktor would still swoon.

He squints at his reflection and tries to tell if his hairline is receding. Chris had said no when he asked him, but Viktor still isn’t sure if he was lying or not. He still hasn’t forgiven him for all the forehead jokes he makes.

The bar is always busy on weekends, but curiously, it’s always just a bit busier than usual around eight on a Saturday. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Yuuri is bringing them customers. People come to hear Yuuri sing, and they stay because Aria has good food and great drinks. News had spread fast about his antics back in December, but there hasn’t been a repeat since. Come to think of it, Viktor’s never seen him drink at the bar since that night. It’s a pity, really.

He catches a bus to Aria because finding parking is an absolute nightmare and grins to himself when he sees Yuuri’s name on the chalkboard for 8:27. He wonders what he’s going to sing tonight. Yuuri prefers soft, slow songs that cast a calm ambience over the bar and relax the patrons, but he has been known to do more upbeat songs too. Viktor remembers the time that Yuuri did ‘History Maker’, an interesting and extremely catchy mix of EDM and more classical instruments like violin and cello. It had Viktor humming ‘we were born to make history’ to himself for a week straight as he brushed his teeth.

Yuuri arrives at 8:20 with Phichit the guitar player and thankfully, he’s not wearing that god-awful tie. He actually looks quite nice tonight, dressed in simple black slacks and a light blue button-up with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. It suits him very much. _Very_ much. Viktor almost walks into a wall because he’s too busy staring to pay attention to where he’s going, mouth slightly agape.

“Do you want some water?” Chris offers, holding up a glass with an infuriatingly amused smirk.

“Shut up.” he sasses back with a roll of his eyes. _Maybe later,_ he thinks.

Across the room, Yuuri laughs brightly at something his friend said and Viktor smiles to himself at the sight. Absentmindedly, he wonders if he’ll ever get the chance to make Yuuri laugh like that too. His mind catches up and he repeats the thought to himself slowly in his head. A blush rises up, painting two pink spots on his cheekbones and he desperately hopes that it’s not too noticeable in the bar’s low lighting.

“Are you blushing?” Chris asks incredulously. _Dammit_.

In response, Viktor crosses his arms and turns around pointedly so that his back is facing him in a petulant gesture. He tries ignores the way his cheeks are starting to burn. It’s embarrassing how easily his cheeks had coloured just by watching Yuuri laugh. His heart squeezes in his chest.

“Come on, go talk to him! It’s been, what, four months since he started performing here?” Chris encourages, reaching over the bar to give Viktor a firm slap on the back. He buckles forward slightly, turning around to glare at his friend, his blush spreading along his face.

“No! What would I even say? ‘Hi, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you and your lovely voice for the last few months, but I swear I’m not, like, creepily obsessed or anything, please let me take you out on a date’! I can’t, Chris. And I won’t.”

Chris stares at him with a contemplative look on his face for a moment. Viktor raises an eyebrow at his scrutinising gaze. Finally, he murmurs quietly, “You really like him, don’t you?”

Viktor’s blush _definitely_ does not darken as Chris’ words replay in his head. Sure, it’s no secret that he likes Yuuri, but he wouldn’t say that he _really_ likes him… at least, he thinks so. “What makes you say that?”

“You’ve never acted so flustered about anyone before, and you haven’t even spoken to him since December! I know you, Viktor. Plus, your eyes get all shiny when you think about him, too. Look, your ears are even red right now!”

Viktor opens his mouth to protest because _how can Chris even tell when he’s thinking about Yuuri_ but his words magically vanish when Yuuri’s voice comes drifting through the bar. He snaps his attention to the stage, but he has a feeling that their conversation isn’t quite over yet. He feels Chris’ eyes boring holes into his back.

“Good evening everyone,” Yuuri says with a shy little wave, and Viktor nearly melts on the spot. “Tonight I’ll be singing something a little different... I hope you enjoy.”

There's a brief pause as Phichit begins to strum a slow, mellow tune on his electric guitar. Yuuri has his eyes downcast and he's tapping his foot gently in time to the guitar. Viktor waits with all of the anticipation in the world for him to start singing, holding his breath, his heart thumping in his ribcage.

Yuuri looks up, right in his direction, and sings the first word. This exact point in time is the moment that Viktor falls in love with Yuuri Katsuki and his beautiful voice.

He feels his knees going weak and he has to sit down on a bar stool, never once taking his eyes off of Yuuri. ‘Something a little different’? That’s the biggest understatement of the century. Yuuri has never sung like this before at Aria, but it’s the most wonderful thing that Viktor’s heard this week.

Yuuri’s singing in a lower key than he usually does, the sound of his voice wrapping around him in a smooth croon. The words flowing from his mouth are foreign, Japanese, Viktor is assuming. It's quite the refreshing change from the English songs that he's used to hearing Yuuri sing. Even though he hasn’t got a clue what the words mean, it's fascinating to listen to him sing like this, the words rolling off his tongue with an ease that's not there when he sings in English. He wishes that he’d heard Yuuri sing in Japanese earlier because it’s a beautiful language to listen to.

Yuuri’s voice is soft and light, making Viktor’s heart flutter against his ribcage. His singing in a lower key sounds just as good, if not better than the key he usually sings in. Viktor swears that he can feel the vibrations resounding through his body.

He gets to the chorus and Viktor breathes out a broken sigh. There's one line in particular that sets his heart alight with the feeling that he's come to associate with Yuuri. His voice soars as he closes his eyes and sways on the stage. Goosebumps rise along Viktor’s skin, and not because he’s feeling cold.

Though he can’t understand Japanese, Yuuri’s song paints a melancholy picture in his head, a bittersweet story of distance and loneliness. His eyes never leave Yuuri for a single second, even when table 9 calls for more water (he almost overfills a glass about three times, but it’s okay). He’s completely and utterly enchanted by the liquid gold of Yuuri’s voice travelling through his ears and overflowing into his veins.

After the second verse, there’s a guitar solo for a few bars and Phichit grins at Yuuri. He’s a talented player, there’s no doubt about that. He and Yuuri work together seamlessly and Viktor wonders if the two have been performing with each other for long.

He glances over at the bar, where Chris is giving him a knowing look. He taps the side of his face with a smirk and Viktor mimics him in confusion. His eyes widen when he feels that his cheek is flushed warm under his fingertips. He’s been blushing the whole time. Chris laughs and Viktor looks to the stage again.

Yuuri starts singing again, softly, then slowly building up to the final chorus. Viktor sighs one last time and suddenly it’s all over. Yuuri lowers the microphone as Phichit finishes the song off by picking out a simple melody. It had only lasted three and a half minutes.

Aria explodes into applause as the guitar’s last note fades into silence. Viktor is breathless.

_Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful._

Viktor is _so_ in love with Yuuri Katsuki.

He wanders back over to the bar in a daze and drops himself down on a stool, ignoring Chris’ smug face. He puts his face in his hands and says quietly, “Okay, maybe I do like him... a lot.”

“Then go and get him,” Chris replies, slapping his shoulder lightly. “Or shall I do it for you?”

Viktor snaps his gaze up to his friend and hisses lowly, “Don’t you dare!”

“Well, he’s leaving right now,”

He looks over to the stage and indeed, Yuuri is standing next to Phichit and watching him pack his guitar into its case. He’s smiling again. Viktor’s heart squeezes painfully again. Is this what pining feels like?

“You gonna let him go this easily?” Chris asks softly as Phichit picks up his guitar case and starts walking. Yuuri follows him and Viktor bites his lip. He’s torn.

He could keep things like this, just listening to Yuuri sing every Saturday night and watching him leave right after. He could keep it like this until… until when? Yuuri can’t keep coming every week for the rest of his life, just like how Viktor can’t keep working at Aria for the rest of his life. He could keep it like this until Yuuri inevitably stops coming and he’ll be left with nothing but faint memories of one night in December, and nothing about Yuuri but his name and the sound of his voice.

But that’s not what Viktor wants. He wants to see him more than once a week for a mere five minutes. He wants to know everything there is to know about him. He never wants to stop hearing him sing. He wants…

Viktor wants to know- no, he _needs_ to know how Yuuri knew that he used to skate.

Chris is staring at him intently. “No,” Viktor replies quietly. “I won’t let him go this easily.”

He pushes himself off the bar stool and strides over to the doors purposefully. “Yuuri!” he calls out, raising an arm to catch his attention. Yuuri stops, startled. He’s got his glasses back on and his eyes are wide.

It’s only when he reaches him that Viktor realises he’s got no idea what to say. He really should've thought this though. He opens his mouth but no words come out. He blinks and screams at himself internally. His mind works overtime to come up with something, _anything_ to say.

“I-I’d like to talk with you,” he says finally, hoping that Yuuri didn’t catch the way that he stuttered slightly. “If you’re willing to, of course.”

Viktor gives him a smile for good measure. It might just be his imagination, but he swears that Yuuri’s cheeks colour ever so slightly. Phichit pokes him in the side and winks. Yeah, he’s definitely blushing now.

“I’ll leave you to it, then.” Phichit says with a hint of slyness in his voice, ignoring Yuuri’s splutter of protest. He saunters off to the bar and Chris grins like the cat that got the cream. He flashes Viktor a thumbs up.

“Um, y-yeah… I’d like that…” Yuuri replies softly, pushing his glasses up. Even his speaking voice is lovely. Viktor is convinced now that there is absolutely no way that he is going to survive this conversation. He’s about to speak, but he’s interrupted by the upbeat pounding of a kick drum. Yuuri gives a slight laugh, bringing his hand up to his mouth as his eyes sparkle with amusement, and Viktor nearly swoons on the spot. Oh, this boy will be the death of him.

“Maybe it would be better if we went somewhere quieter, hmm?” he suggests in a slightly sarcastic tone and Yuuri chuckles lightly again. Viktor nods his head in a gesture for Yuuri to follow him and they stand just outside Aria’s entrance.

A cool night breeze sweeps across their bare skin and Yuuri shivers slightly. Viktor wishes he had a jacket so he could offer it to him like- okay, he’s getting way ahead of himself. He chides himself mentally and reins his thoughts into check. The soft lighting from the bar combined with the faint moonlight paints Yuuri very flatteringly. His gaze is on the floor and he’s fiddling with the hem of his blue button-up.

 _Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,_ Viktor’s mind whispers.

“I’ll be direct,” he starts quietly, rubbing the side of his neck. “I think you’re amazing.”

Yuuri stares up at him and his lips part with a barely audible ‘oh’. “You do?”

There’s disbelief in his voice and Viktor is baffled as to why Yuuri would have any reason to doubt it. He nods emphatically and continues, “You _are_ amazing. And your voice… it’s incredible. I’ve never heard anything like it before!”

He rambles for what must be a good minute or two, gesturing expressively with his hands. Yuuri turns redder and redder with every word. Viktor stops abruptly, suddenly aware that he’s been chattering on again. His cheeks flush lightly. Well, this is embarrassing.

“Sorry, I talk too much.” he says sheepishly.

“I-It’s alright,” Yuuri responds, his cherry-red blush fading to a softer pink. “So, um… I’m guessing that you didn’t ask to speak with me just to tell me that my voice is like honey?”

Viktor blinks a couple times with a blank smile on his face. Did he really say that? He doesn’t remember saying that. This is embarrassing.

“Ah, right… I wanted to ask you a question,”

Yuuri looks up at him shyly. The tips of his ears are red, endearingly so. “Y-Yeah?”

Viktor takes a breath and dives right in. “You know me, and you know that I used to skate. How?”

Yuuri lets out a soft ‘ah’ of understanding. He smiles softly and Viktor’s heart melts.

“That’s because I used to skate too, when I was younger,” he begins, toying with the hem of his shirt again. “And you were kind of my idol…”

Stunned speechless yet again, Viktor discovers that Yuuri Katsuki is just full of surprises.

“I’d never thought about skating competitively until I saw you on the TV one day, and I realised that I wanted to skate like that someday too,” he continues. Viktor listens, fascinated.

“And did you?” he asks curiously. “Skate competitively, I mean.”

Yuuri shakes his head with a sad little smile. “No. The cost had just been too much for me and my family at the time. But I loved music, so instead, I got this dream, that if I studied music, maybe I’d… be able to compose something… for y-you someday…”

He trails off at the end of his sentence, gaze flickering up to meet Viktor’s eyes for the briefest second. His next words are barely above a whisper.

“But then… you disappeared all of a sudden.”

Viktor remembers. He remembers it all too well. He remembers the doctors telling him that he’d be incredibly lucky to ever walk on his left leg again, and that skating was pretty much out of the question indefinitely. He remembers the moment his dreams of becoming a champion figure skater had been shattered into a thousand pieces that still stab at his heart to this day. An endless stream of _what ifs_ plaguing him for years.

Viktor gives a mirthless chuckle, tinged ever so slightly with bitterness. “I thought the skating world had long forgotten my name.”

 “I didn’t forget you,” Yuuri murmurs, the look in his eyes so clear and piercing that it’s like he’s staring right through him. “At first, I thought that there was no way it was you, but I knew. I could never forget you, Viktor Nikiforov.”

Yuuri’s words break some kind of emotional dam inside of Viktor, and in a few short moments, he finds himself spilling everything to him. Even Chris doesn’t know the whole story in as much depth. He talks and he talks and he talks. He talks about how he’d felt like such a failure, destroying his knee right before his senior debut, how he’d felt so lost because skating was the only thing he knew, how he ran to Detroit and hoped for a miracle. Yuuri is a wonderful listener.

“I can’t help but wonder,” Viktor finishes in a wistful tone. “If you’d been able to become a skater, and if I hadn’t messed my knee up… do you think we still would’ve met?”

Yuuri gives him a gentle smile, eyes warm, and Viktor’s heart sighs, _beautiful, beautiful, beautiful_. “Who knows? I’d like to think that we would’ve met. Maybe we’re both professional figure skaters in some alternate universe.”

The two of them chuckle quietly at that. Viktor can’t think of a time where he’s ever felt his heart swell like this, burning and expanding until it feels like the sun is sitting in his chest. Yuuri is too good to be true. Suddenly, he blushes bright red and takes sudden interest in his shoes again.

“U-Um, you’re probably wondering what that song I sang was about, right? R-Right! I could, uh, show you the translation… ma-maybe some other time… if you want…?” Yuuri stutters, tugging so hard at the end of his shirt that Viktor is slightly afraid he might rip it. Though it certainly wouldn’t be an unwelcome sight…

Viktor grins unabashedly and teases, “Is this your way of saying that you want to see me again?”

He gives a tiny, shy nod. “…Yes.”

“I’d love to.”

Yuuri beams so cheerfully at him that even the brightest star in the sky tonight is nothing compared to him. Phichit comes out as they’re exchanging phone numbers, just a little bit tipsy and looking quite happy.

“Looks like things worked out for both of us tonight, eh?” he grins slyly, nudging Yuuri with his elbow. Yuuri only smiles and blushes even harder. His friend wanders off to find a taxi and leaves the two of them alone for one last brief moment.

“So, um… I’ll see you later, then?” Viktor confirms, grinning like an idiot. Yuuri nods enthusiastically and Phichit calls his name from a taxi he’s flagged down. Before he can fully comprehend what’s happening, there’s a chaste kiss being pressed to his cheek and a hurried, “Bye, Viktor, pleasecallmesoon!”

He watches Yuuri run down the pavement to join Phichit and dazedly brings a hand up to his face. He swears that he can still feel the sensation of soft lips brushing against his cheek. Perhaps it’s too early to tell, but Viktor really thinks that he might be in love.

His boss reprimands him harshly after he finally comes back inside, having stood outside for a bit too long and watched as the taxi rolled down the street and out of sight. Ah, well, if he’s going to get fired tonight, it’ll be worth it. To his utter surprise, he does not end up getting fired, but he didn’t get away completely scot-free. He’s on dish-washing duty for the next week. Still worth it. Chris high-fives him later and Mila whistles.

Viktor texts Yuuri goodnight as soon as he gets home, and he nearly cries when Yuuri replies almost immediately with _‘good night viktor_ _♡’_.

_(Several months, many dates and two confessions later, Yuuri sings Viktor’s last free skate song one night, and Viktor runs up to the stage and kisses him right there and then, in front of the entire bar, because Yuuri Katsuki is a wonderful, wonderful boy who never fails to surprise him.)_

**Author's Note:**

> This has been bouncing around my head for a while, and faerie--kei's amazing art (linked above) was just the little push I needed to actually write this  
> Also Yuuri's VA can [sing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS_OFuW2r-0/) and all I have to say is _holy shit I am in love_  
>  Thanks for reading! Please feel free to leave your favourite line or part in the comments ^^  
> [My Tumblr](https://enchanted-hourglass.tumblr.com/)


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